


you fill my lungs with sweetness

by lisettedelapin



Category: Free!
Genre: Gen, and everyone wants to fix it, but flowers are kind of mean to him, it is a sad love affair, tachibana makoto likes flowers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-29
Updated: 2014-09-29
Packaged: 2018-02-19 05:50:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2377127
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lisettedelapin/pseuds/lisettedelapin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“We need to bring the flowers to him,” Haru says, his eyes downcast as he frowns.</p><p>(Makoto loves flowers. Flowers don't love Makoto. But it's okay because every one else loves him enough to compensate.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	you fill my lungs with sweetness

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this a while back and i thought i'd fix it up now to cope with how overwhelming my need for makoto to be happy is! title from [Bloom by the Paper Kites](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8inJtTG_DuU)!

Makoto has a major problem.

If he sees a flower, he has to touch it. And with springtime, with golden light and lush earth and pollen _everywhere_ , this habit does not bode well considering how easy a target he is to the horrors of hayfever.

“Well maybe you’re inviting it by always plucking those goddamn flowers,” Rin ventures. The words are with no real bite though, and when he looks down at Makoto from his bed, his expression is more concerned than annoyed.

“But they’re all so lovely and they only come out like this once a year! I feel as if I’m not appreciating them if I just ignore them,” Makoto replies.

From next to him, Rei hums thoughtfully, pushing up his glasses before he speaks. “While it is true that flowers are beautiful, especially so in spring. We do have to take into account that Makoto with a runny nose reaches negative levels on the beauty scale. Have you considered if it’s worth it?”

Makoto frowns. “Everyone gets a runny nose sometimes.”  
  
There’s rustling as Rin puts down his book and rolls onto his side so he’s facing everyone. “Yeah, but like we said, it’s not like we go and make it worse for ourselves.”

“Though I do have to say, the range Makoto achieves when he sneezes is extraordinary,” chimes in Rei.

That makes Makoto blush, and graciously, Haru steps in with a simple, “I need to water the pot plants.”

Silent up till now, Nagisa hops down from his perch on the windowsill so he can move over to Makoto, tilting his head up by the chin and inspecting him very carefully. He taps Makoto’s cheek once before turning to the rest of the group, the severe downwards turn of his mouth looking uncharacteristically austere.

“Makoto,” he says, poking the taller boy again,“is a hopeless case. I’m afraid he’s a serial flower picker.”

Makoto’s sigh gets lost in the various grumbles of assent.

~

He points out delphinium to Rei, smiles when Rei waxes poetic about the way they rise tall and graceful from the earth, standing straight even as their pretty blue flowers multiply; finding home on climbing stalks.

~

Nagisa is given a daisy chain. But the real gift is firstly the sight of Makoto’s tongue peeking out from his mouth as he fumbles with the delicate flowers in his big hands. And later, the smile that follows when he holds it up almost daintily from his index finger and drops it into Nagisa’s palm.

“That’s the first time I’ve managed to do it right,” he says, nodding at the chain and letting out a sheepish chuckle.

~ 

He brings tiger lilies to Rin.

It is evening and everyone is walking back from a musical Nagisa had dragged them to when he pauses and leans down, something having caught his eye. Rin is the only one who hangs back. He’s just about to tell Makoto to hurry up when he rises, the setting sun casting lowlight on his hair and Rin is only just noticing the gold flecks that hide in the green of his eyes when beaming, Makoto holds a bright, elegant tiger lily to him.

Rin is too struck, too caught up in the warm gratitude that’s taking root in his chest. He can’t manage any form of protest when Makoto tucks the flower behind his ear, fiddling with it for a moment before taking a step back.

“It suits you very well,” Makoto says, grinning all the while.

~

For Haru, there are bouquets – petals in his shoes, in his hair, finding their way to his pillow. For Haru there are chrysanthemums and peonies and bandaids on Makoto’s fingers as he holds out roses newly rid of their thorns.  Aster in the pockets of his school shirt, baby hydrangea flowers fallen from their bunches and a single lotus floating atop a dish of water on his desk.

Makoto holds his hand, always warm like the faint blush on his cheeks, and drags him to walk under wise, looming wisteria, stand among rows and rows of tulips that reach Haru’s calves and look almost bashful with the way their petals overlap. 

And for Makoto, there is Haru at his side; holding tissues to his nose before he even feels the sneeze coming on.

~

“We need to bring the flowers to him,” Haru says, his eyes downcast as he frowns.

“We could get fake ones?” Nagisa suggests and Rei is nodding, halfway through recommending a place that makes them especially realistic looking when Haru shakes his head.

“They’ll just get dusty and his allergies will end up worse.”

For a moment, everyone thinks until Rin breaks the quiet.  
  
“My mum’s phone background is a field of wildflowers. Sometimes she opens her phone just to look at it,” he says.

Nagisa seems to bounce, laying a hand on Rei’s shoulder strong enough to make the taller boy slump with a startled yelp. “I read something like that in a historical romance novel once!”

Rin frowns. “What were you doing reading historical romance?”

“It was on Rei’s bookshelf.” Nagisa says, without a second thought, just as Rei’s entire face flushes red and he chokes out a brief squawk of indignation.

“It was for research purposes!”

Rin only raises a brow, turning back to Nagisa and gesturing for him to continue.

Nagisa gets more and more excited as he speaks. “There was a sickly princess who couldn't be exposed to light, she wanted so badly to go outside and see the flowers she’d occasionally be allowed to look at from through the window. Everyone hated to see her sad, and so they arranged for the finest painters to cover her walls in pictures of every flower imaginable.”

Haru seems to contemplate this for a moment, before he nods very slowly and makes for the front door of his house, everyone hurrying after him.

~

Makoto comes home with his siblings by midday. Upon seeing the extremely suspicious way his mother’s eyes dart away from him as she says that there is a serious, unidentified problem currently being taken care of in his room, Makoto ignores her warning and races upstairs to look into it.

What he finds is Nagisa wiggling a paintbrush menacingly at Rei (who currently has a smiley face on his nose), Rin dabbing somewhat aggressively at a palette in his hand and then Haru, leaning close to the wall and staring at the falling petals of a cherry blossom as if looking hard enough will make them change direction.

And then he refocuses, rocks back once on his feet and gasps when he notices an entire garden spanning three quarters of his wall.

He doesn’t realise he’s crying until he feels moisture on his cheeks and Haru is right at his side, looking concerned and unsure of what to do until Makoto tugs him forward and buries his face into his shoulder. Nagisa is next, bounding over to them and poking Makoto in the side as Rei gives him a prim pat on the back that works in perfect counterpoint to his gentle smile. Rin comes to them last, footsteps slow and measured and his paint stained fingers trembling as they pass over Makoto’s back.

Heart ready to burst, Makoto stammers out a weak “thank you” between sniffles. He feels undeniably lucky, golden and too happy, so happy it frightens him.

And later, when Nagisa and Rei are arguing over a crudely painted stick figure version of their gang, when Rin is trying to tuck a tiger lily into the bevy of colour in front of him and Haru is adding the finishing touches to a watering can; everyone manages to catch sight of Makoto, just barely touching his fingertips to the petals of a sunflower as his breath leaves him on a soft sigh and he smiles to himself.

**Author's Note:**

> . .. . .please just make this boy smile I NEED


End file.
